I love going for walks. Especially on sunny, crispy, slightly chilly new Fall days. Those walks are made even better when it just so happens I’m accompanying folks I adore. Yesterday I finally had some time to hang out with Em and Morgan and Turkey, their fabulous pooch (and Guido, their semi-new kitteh who I officially adore after meeting him for the first time yesterday) and on the schedule was a late afternoon foraging walk through their SE Portland neighborhood. I get pretty fired-up about going for walks with other folks – there’s just something exciting and wonderful and adventurous about traveling by foot. It’s slow enough that you can observe as much or as little as you like (though usually it’s the former) and you can go at whatever pace you wish. I love to observe the world around me and walking is a great way to do it. Walking in new and unfamiliar places is such an adventure! Not to mention that there was a foraging aspect to this particular Sunday walk and I am all about the free food. Especially when it’s food that might otherwise go to waste. Though, I suppose this food probably would not have gone to waste because there are innumerable squirrels and other creatures in Portland that surely dispatch with the fruit of any and every chestnut, walnut and filbert tree (and any other nut or fruit tree to be found) in the city.

I don’t go for walks as often as I ought to. I don’t mind walking around Woodland (and I haven’t actually done it all that much, probably because I don’t have anyone to join me and walking is something I enjoy more with a friend) but there’s a little something missing. Maybe it’s the smallness of Woodland. Perhaps that’s something to ponder.

I went on a walk earlier this summer and even though things turned out different than what I’d hoped for, that walk was still pretty amazing. (Ha! So cryptic!) I also remember a walk I went on in college. It was an evening walk around the upper Queen Anne neighborhood and there was something downright magical about that particular walk on that particular night and quite honestly with that particular person. Things also did not turn out the way I had hoped in that situation, but still, the memory remains in my head. And I’m happy with that. There was a walk with Kayti last summer when we picked blackberries in the wet morning grass and came back rather soggy from the dew. And last winter, walking through Bellevue with Kayti and her Mom and watching them catch giant snowflakes in their mouths. That memory makes me smile. Often when I go for a walk, it seems to inspire conversation that might not otherwise take place. I seem to think better when I'm walking. Though the same cannot necessarily be said for trying to think and do any number of other things at the same time.

I think this fall and winter shall be a time for more walking. Who wants to come with me?